"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on." (Matthew 6:24-25,RV)
The first part of this passage, concerning the two masters, is self-evident. No man can serve two masters, especially when they are directly opposed to each other, as God and mammon.
Mammon was the Chaldean God supposed to preside over wealth and the acquisition of property. So here it stands for property of any kind, not necessarily great riches, but whatever one acquires of this world's goods.
But what is the force of the "therefore"? Why "Therefore...be not anxious"? Because such anxiety would show us to be servants of mammon, and not servants of God. We serve that for which we live. If our whole anxiety is for food, drink, and clothing, this is an indication that we live for those things, that we serve them, instead of making those things our servants.
But if there were nothing more to life than merely a struggle to get that with which to keep life going, life would not be worth living. But the life is more than meat, and the body more than raiment.
A Lesson from the Birds
"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow the not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly." (Matthew 6:26)
Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?
In what respect is man better than the birds? Why, he is of more value than they. "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. ... Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them: how much more are you better than the fowls?" (Luke 12:7,24)
It is not that man is better able to make a living than the birds are, for that idea would destroy the Saviour's lesson, which is one of trust in the Lord, and not in ourselves. No; but God who feeds the birds will much more feed us, who are of much greater value than they.
How are the birds fed by the Lord? Do they sit on a limb or in their nest, waiting for Him to drop the food into their mouths? Not by any means. "These wait all upon You, that You may give them their meat in due season. That You give them they gather; You open your hand, they are filled with good." (Psalm 104:27-28)
They do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; but they pick up what God provides for them, and at every season of the year they find something provided.
Can man do more? Does man provide his own food, or "make his own living," as it is sometimes called? In other words, can man create? No; he cannot add an inch to his stature, or an ounce to his weight. Everything comes to him from without--from above.
In reality he does no more than the birds do; he simply picks up what God strews over the whole earth. Why not acknowledge God's hand in the gifts received, instead of claiming that we ourselves do all? for he who is worried and anxious gives God no place in the work.
The Clothing of the Lily
"And why take thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." (Matthew 6:28-29)
What was the difference between Solomon's clothing, gorgeous as it was, and the lilies? Here is something for us to study. We know that Solomon was clothed with garments, out of material taken from plants and animals. Spinning and weaving were necessary. Was it so in the beginning? No; Adam and Eve, as long as they remained faithful to God, were clothed with light, even as God is. God is clothed with light, as with a garment: "Who cover yourself with light as with a garment." (Psalm 104:2)
And man also when first created was covered with light. "For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor." (Psalm 8:5)
But all have sinned, and so have lost the glory of God: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
And as one consequence, they must have clothing made for them by hand. Let God himself provide this, even as He did for our first parents. "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21)
But what is the clothing of the lily? It is its color, or the various colors, green, white, yellow, red, that it has "for glory and for beauty." (Exodus 28:2)
Yes, but what composes or forms these colors? Nothing else but light. So the lily has its original clothing of light, which man has lost, and which all Solomon's wealth and wisdom cannot equal. This clothing comes direct from God, without the intervention of human hands.
Now God is "bringing many sons unto glory." (Hebrews 2:10)
The "robe of righteousness" and the "garments of salvation" with which He clothes those who trust Him are the glory of the Lord with which they shall shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." (Isaiah 61:10) "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matthew 13:43)
Well, cannot He who does that which is greatest be trusted to do that which is least? If we believe that God, and His power alone, can give us eternal life and "all things that pertain until life and godliness," (2 Peter 1:3) can we not trust Him to provide the things that pertain to this earthly life? And if we cannot trust Him for this least, do we really have any faith in His promise of eternal life?
Heathenism Professedly Christian
"Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:31-33,RV)
"Gentiles" are heathen. The people of God are Israelites, and not Gentiles or heathen, although they are taken out from among the heathen.
The characteristic of heathenism is trust in that which can be seen, instead of in the unseen. That is why they even make images. But it is not necessary that one make graven or molten images, in order to be a heathen. The heathen are wholly absorbed with the things of this life, for they suppose that they themselves must provide for their own wants, even as they make their own gods. Not recognizing the God, "who no man has seen, neither can see," (1 Timothy 6:16) who alone creates and upholds all things, they trust in themselves, and then, finding their own strength (or that which they flatter themselves that they have) inadequate, they actually began to worry.
Suppose now that a professed Christian worries over the future, which is in God's own power? what then? Why, he is simply showing his unbelief in God's power. In other words, he is showing that he is heathen.
But worse this, by professing to be a worshiper of the only true God, and still manifesting the anxiety of the heathen, he is leading men who do not know God to think that He is just like gods of the heathen, and not a loving Father, solicitous for the welfare of His children.
But, worse than all, suppose, as is often the case, that this anxiety becomes greatest when it is a matter of keeping God's commandments? Here is a plain duty, but the man says, "If I do it, how can I get a living?"
Ah, how often that question is asked. There is no question about its being commanded by the Lord, the commandment is too plain to admit of any doubt; the only thought is, "I cannot make a living and keep His commandments."
Yet the man using such language often calls himself a Christian. What sort of a witness is he for God? a false witness. By acting as do the heathen, he is declaring that the God whom he professes to serve is just the same as the heathen gods,--that He is not able to care for those who serve Him. What a pity that men will thus bear false witness against God.
Only One Thing Needful
"Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
If a man cannot trust the Lord for his daily bread, is it possible for him to make others believe that he trusts God for eternal salvation? Certainly not! What trust can a man have in God for eternity, if he cannot trust Him for a day?
He who is worrying over what he shall eat and what he shall drink, and what he shall wear, and who worries especially when it comes to the question of keeping God's commandments, and who finally concludes that he dare not follow God's commandments in certain thing, for instance in Sabbath-keeping, lest he should not make a living, thereby proclaims that in his opinion this life is worth more than the life to come. As a matter of fact, without the life to come, this life is worth nothing. "What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
"The kingdom of God and His righteousness" includes everything. "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come." (1 Timothy 4:8)
In fact, this life is given us for nothing else than a preparation for the life to come; therefore the surest way to get the most of this life, is diligently to seek the life to come, through faith in the Lord. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)--Present Truth, January 27, 1898--Timeline: IV-15 (Sermon on the Mount)--Matthew 6:24-30.